USB Port: Micro-USB. Got to carry my own cable around now :/ (Hero uses the common Mini-USB)

Soft amber light when charging unlike Hero's bright amber LED. The charger does not have a light

Nexus's trackball light is brighter than Hero's. It has a blue-ish light

Hero's activation buttons (as I call them): answer, home, menu & hang up/power are no longer buttons on Nexus but are touch-buttons. They also no longer activate the screen. The power button on the top does

The charger has a chin that takes space from either left or right, which is quite inconvenient since you have to put it on the edge of a power distributor

No place to hang a phone pendant! Where am I supposed to put my gold-plated 1 fils now? :(

The screen is amazing! Its colors are way better than that of an iPhone 3GS

Dock Station

Doesn't transmit data. Must not connect to computer USB ports!

The phone transmits music to the dock via Bluetooth

Tacking the phone off the dock takes you to the unlocked home screen

Battery & Power

Charging Time: ~2:30 hours

Battery Statistics: Shows battery usage and which components use it mostly: Display, Cell standby, Android, Wallpaper, Phone idle, Voice calls and a few more

The default live wallpaper consumes the least power. Even less than still ones!

On Hero, it was possible to link contacts to their Facebook profiles when the names in your contact list & Facebook didn't match. This is not possible on Nexus & names have to be the same for them to merge and become one

When adding a new number through the call log, using the search function won't add the number. You have to scroll to the contact and click it to see the new number

Usability & User Interface

Muting the Nexus doesn't require unlocking its screen. Press power button then the speaker icon. Hero requires unlocking then holding the power button then choosing silent

Keyboard: Nexus has no new line button for SMS in neither landscape nor portrait mode!!!!

Date & Time: Hero had more options like showing the name of the day. Not included on Nexus

Empty space menu: Hero required 2.5-3 seconds to bring up the menu. Nexus brings it in 1 second when clicking in an empty spot

Tiny dots on the bottom of the screen each representing a screen. Clicking the dots changes to the screen either on left or right (depending on which dot was clicked)

Still no option to have no wallpaper. I prefer my screens blank but seems like it's a far fetched dream

Keyboard doesn't include numbers when long-pressing keys. One must click on "?123" to get numbers and special characters

Calendar: Looks ugly compared to Hero's

When sending an SMS, a clock icon shows near the message meaning that it is being sent, then the clock goes when it is sent. Hero didn't have that and you wouldn't know if it was sent or not, and if there was a failure you'd find out after 3-5 minutes with a failure notification

Hero would vibrate once when a pending call is picked up. Nexus doesn't (part of HTC's Sense UI)

Notifications: Only sound and trackball light. Hero had a green LED that lit when emails or SMS were received, in addition to the trackball light

System update: No option to notify before download. It'll always download by itself then notify you when it's ready to install the update

Has voice input to write SMS, call people or perform search. It requires an Internet connection

No profiles. I have to use 3rd party apps to get this basic functionality, which an 8KD Nokia phone provides...

Applications

GMail app is better than Hero's. Undoing actions is now possible (like when archiving an email by mistake)

Can't save attachments from either the gmail app or the mail app. You can view them only (tried a PDF file)!!

In the gmail and mail apps, we cannot see who is sender of an email unless we click on the contact circle. There is no way to copy that email without adding to contacts first!

Conclusion

Coming out of the simple & intuitive Sense UI, I find the vanilla (standard) Android quite lacking. I could live without the simple dialer, but not being able to create groups, adding a contact to a specific group or syncing the Exchange calendar is unacceptable!

I was moments away from selling the phone until I found out it's possible to use Sense UI on Nexus One by rooting the phone and using HTC Desire's ROM, which I'm going to do when it finally reaches a stable version in a month or two.

I was hesitant about rooting the phone before, but I clarified a piece of info that had me take the decision: You can unlock the bootloader, root your phone and use custom ROMs, but you'll only receive over the air (OTA) updates on the original ROM. For the custom ones, you'll need to redeploy as updates are released.

Revisions

4: March 8th: Added a new bug to "Contacts" and an entry under "Connectivity"3: March 7th: Added link to picture gallery.2: March 7th: Added an entry under "Phone & Charger Design" about the screen. Two points under "Limitations" 1: March 6th: Initial post